The Golden Touch
by Just Lovely
Summary: AU. She was the hole in the middle of his heart that would never mend. He was the crack in the middle of her heart that would sometime mend. She affected him in more ways than one. He affected her in only one way. Birthday!fic for Hikari Adams


**Disclaimer:** not mine

_Dedication: _to Emily (Hikari Adams), happy happy birthday! May it be a blast and never dull!

_The Golden Touch_

**By:** **_Just Lovely._**

She was the hole in the middle of his heart that would never mend.

He was the crack in the middle of her heart that would sometime mend.

She affected him in more ways than one.

He affected her in only one way.

This is their story.

* * *

Haruno Sakura was the only child of her family, she was odd. She was never spoiled and unlike all the other rich kids her age, she worked to earn money instead of taking from her family's fortune.

She was different.

Uchiha Sasuke was the younger brother of Itachi Uchiha; the prodigy. And as such, he was often basking in the shadow of his better, older, smarter, why-can't-you-be-like-Itachi? brother. Although, he always got what he wanted, he was one of those spoiled ones.

Shower them with gifts and money to shut them up. He was like every other rich kid around.

* * *

Konoha Preparatory-first year

Sasuke Uchiha was six, Sakura Haruno was six.

When he met her, he deemed her to be like all the other brainless fan girls: annoying.

When she met him, she deemed him as one of 'those' kids: rich,snobby and selfish.

He was wrong but she was right.

It was like a kind of love-hate relationship. Sakura never had a problem with him, until the moment when he pushed her in the snow.

Because then, it was _war_.

While Sasuke had a problem with everyone, from his brother, to his parents, to the girl who talked too much and answered the questions before him.

Yeah, he did not like that particular one at all.

-.-

"Uchiha-kun, could you pass me the stapler please?" the little girl with pink hair and green eyes asked, a little shy as class time was ticking down and she just needed to staple her booklet before handing it in.

Sakura pulled at the ends of her pink hair when he didn't respond, "Uchiha-kun, could you _please_ pass the stapler?"

If the little dark haired, pale skinned boy heard her, he didn't show it.

She glanced at the clock, a little desperate and slightly annoyed that her crush was annoying her. She nudged him with her elbow, he didn't seem to have felt it. "Uchiha-kun, stapler please?"

_tickticktick_

She could hear the seconds tick by as they thumped in her head. She yanked on her hair, her teeth biting down on her bottom lip. "Stapler please?"

He looked at her, a dark eyebrow raised and dark eyes annoyed. "What?"

"Stapler please."

"Hn," he swiped it off the corner of his desk and clanged it onto hers.

She scowled at his turned back, that crush was done.

And she used to look up at him, because he was smart and kinda pretty. She had a crush at him, but he was too snobby, and mean, and ignorant, and prideful, and egoistic. The list went on, but to be honest, Haruno Sakura no longer cared about the Uchiha Sasuke.

A childish love that formed a crack in her premature heart.

* * *

Konoha Preparatory-second year

Sasuke Uchiha was seven and Sakura Haruno was seven.

When she answered the question before him, he deemed her his enemy.

When he glared at her, she deemed him worthless.

A little cold perhaps but, that was the reality of their world.

* * *

Her hand shot up, fast and confident among the twenty or so other rich kids in the pastel blue classroom. Her voice was clear and strong amongst the sudden gossip murmurs that rippled like a wave from the front row to the back.

Nobody answered a question before the little Uchiha.

And his only sentiment was the sudden urge to push her down so she wouldn't be stealing his spotlight anymore or ever again.

So, that one day, where all the teachers were having a meeting in the school and the children were sent out to play in the falling snow; he silenced her.

And with her confused jade eyes wide, he pushed her down onto the snow.

Cold and wet, she stepped back into the classroom when the bell rang, her nose pink and running, her hair matted down with wet snow and her lips quivering blue as her body shook this way and that.

Sasuke hadn't been exactly ruled out as the perpetrator but it was in the eyes of everyone.

Rich kids were pretty smart in gossip.

* * *

Konoha Preparatory-fourth year

Sasuke Uchiha was nine and Sakura Haruno was nine.

When he pushed her, he deemed her to be a solved problem. Everyone was afraid of the Uchihas, so yes, he was that confident.

When he stuck her in the snow, she deemed him crazy.

Neither of the two knew what would be the outcome of it all.

* * *

Sakura didn't know why he was crazy, she just knew that he was and that was all there was to it. He paid for it too, little by little and he was more affected by what everyone thought of him than her. He had pushed a girl, you never fought back against a girl, it was sort of something like a crime and a disgrace. The disgusted looks thrown his way proved it, the dirty looks that he endured and the clenching of his stomach nerved him so much...

At nine years old, Sasuke Uchiha wanted to crawl into a hole and never see anyone again.

Sasuke had his back to the rough bark of the old maple. He had a shovel in one hand and as he dug, the dirt stained his white pants and his clean pressed black shirt, it clung to his fingers, and stuck to his face in little splotches. He was going to dig a hole to China and hide out until the coast was clear.

-x.

Sakura ran across the field in the bright sunshine, her cotton candy pink hair flying behind her. Her arms spread wide as she ran like a bird against the wind, jade eyes glittering with fun and excitement.

-xx.

Sasuke sank onto the ground, his fingers dug and scraped and dug some more. His chubby little fingers scratched at the sides of the hole and he pulled piles after piles of dirt out, a little mountain beside him.

-xxx.

Sakura wandered along the plains, rainbow colour flowers becoming a blur as she raced through and long blades of lush green grass scratching against her bare knees. It was like freedom but without the fresh sweet of fresh air and there was something...something that made the air reek of something odd and unpleasant, like a skunk's smell.

Her button nose wrinkled in distaste and she walked up the trail to the old maple.

-xxxx.

Sasuke sat there, crouched in the corner, his clothes wrinkled and stained with dirt as his tired hands scratched and raked through the slowly growing hole in front of him.

He leaned back against the tree and rubbed a hand onto his forehead, smearing brown and black onto his pale skin.

"What are you doing?"

He looked up, dark eyes alarmed at the sudden appearance of _her_ in that - too bright for sunlight - red sundress. It was almost blinding.

"What are _you_ doing?"

She frowned, a tight firm line of her lips and she looked down at him, her round face shaded by the tall maple tree. "Asking what you're doing obviously, are you stupid or what?"

Sasuke bristled, his dirt encrusted hands forming tiny little fists, "I'm _smart_, obviously. And if you could _see_ through those green gremlin eyes of yours, you could observe the hole I'm digging to China."

He stood up to be eye levelled with her, a triumphant grin on his lips.

Her eyebrows rose at the ludicrous idea, "Wow, you really are dumb. My eyes aren't gremlins, yours are black holes filled with nothing but stupid. And you're not going to get to China with that shovel, anyways, or ever at all."

"And why not?"

"Japan is an island, stupid. You'd have to go through water."

He blanched at the intelligent comeback and his dark eyes narrowed in discontent. "I don't like you."

"Sure you don't, if you really didn't, you'd stop staring at me like a hungry pig."

And Sakura walked off, pink hair flying, radiantly shining in the setting sun, her person practically glowing with smartness and he just stared. With his mouth agape, like a pig.

He didn't quite like the fact that she was right.

* * *

Konoha Secondary Boarding School-third year

Ssuke Uchiha was seventeen and Sakura Haruno was seventeen.

When she talked to him on that day so long ago, he deemed her: friend.

When she saw the stage of smartness he was in several years ago, she deemed him: precaution.

He thought she was smart (she agreed with that), she thought he was dumb (he rejected that entirely).

* * *

He didn't acknowledge her when they crossed paths in the hallways; and neither did she to him, their relationship was mutual, he was dumb and she was smart.

Totally different levels there.

He watched her progress through the years, from a little weak girl - who annoyed the hell out of him every time she beat him by answering the question first – to a mature woman who he actually thought of as an _equal_.

That said something and more.

That said something like affection.

That said something like kinship.

That said something like an attraction.

That said something like he was falling in love for the first time.

And she showed him up every time. And she outsmarted him every time. And she was overall better than him every time.

He didn't hate her for it; point blank, he actually loved her for it.

* * *

Sasuke Uchiha was twenty-two and Sakura Haruno was twenty-two.

When he realized nothing would happen, he deemed her: Sakura.

When she wondered about her cracked heart mending, she deemed him: Sasuke.

* * *

Thoughts?


End file.
